Falling Down Stairs
by bookishlybabble
Summary: Hermione and Draco have always had a feeling of mutual dislike. An innocent encounter one night sets of a chain reaction.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione looked up at the clock. 10:25. Darn, she thought, she had read through dinner. She grabbed the large stack of books that she had selected, and exited the library, staggering slightly under the weight of her books. She was walking down the stairs slowly and clumsily, trying to keep her massive pile of books balanced. Suddenly she missed a step, the first book fell, then the second, and then the whole pile gave way, taking Hermione down with it. She braced herself, waiting for her body to hit the cold stone floor. But it didn't, instead she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her. She gasped in surprise and relief. Eyes still closed, she became aware of the same pair of strong arms lifting her to her feet. She opened her eyes and found herself looking up at the smirking face of Draco Malfoy.

He needed to clear his head. The astronomy homework was really getting to him. He set his homework down and slipped out of the dormitory. Why on earth do people choose to spend their entire lives looking stars through a telescope, Draco thought as he rounded a corner, it seemed so dull, so- all of a sudden a large flurry of books and brown hair came crashing down. He instinctively grabbed the brunette girl around the waist to keep her from hitting the ground. He helped her onto her feet and saw that the girl was none other than Hermione Granger. Of course, she wasn't at dinner so she must have been in the library, only Hermione would skip a meal to read. She was a notorious know-it-all, and had been part of the Famous Trio. She was the only one to come back to school and finish her education as a NEWT student. They had always a mutual dislike for one another but recently there had been a shift, he no longer loathed her, he didn't ignore her, or treat her poorly. Draco found himself thinking of her warm brown eyes, the way her eyebrows scrunched together when she was reading, and the kind, loving expression that came to her face when she smiled, oh and her smile. That was one heck of a smile, Draco thought to himself on his way back to his dormitory after running into Hermione. Little did Draco know that he was slowly, painfully, falling for Hermione Granger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hermione**

She woke up to see light pouring in through a crack in the curtains of the girls dormitory. She sat up rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She looked at the alarm clock on her tiny nightstand it read 8:20. Oh my god! How could she have let this happen, she, Hermione Jean Granger, did not oversleep. She threw on her uniform and hastily made her way down to breakfast. She slid into the bench right next to fellow Gryffindor Ginny Weasley.

"Well glad you could finally join us!" Ginny teased poking her friend in the arm."What happened, did you oversleep?!" Ginny said in mock horror. Hermione scowled, attempting to secretly test her breath.

"It happens." Hermione said dismissively, acting as if it had happened before.

Ginny scoffed."No, not to you it doesn't, this is what, the first time in your entire life that you have overslept?" Hermione said nothing, staring intently down at her toast.

"So, what were you doing last night that tired you out so much?" Ginny said raising her eyebrows in a teasing fashion.

"Did anything come in the post for me?" Hermione said, quickly changing the subject.

"No, why were you expecting something?" Ginny asked taking a sip from her pumpkin juice.

"Yeah, I was expecting something from Ron; today's our anniversary of when we started dating, and I just thought… "Hermione muttered, trailing off at the end.

"Hermione, are you telling me that so far my brother has forgotten your birthday and your anniversary." Ginny said, her eyes narrowing.

"Ginny its fine really, I've never been one for petty romantic gestures anyway." Hermione said, shrugging it off. But she was disappointed. She hadn't seen him in a while, they were both very busy, him being an international quidditch player, and her being at Hogwarts. Harry hadn't mentioned him at all in the owls he has been sending her. She missed him and wanted to hear from him badly, but he hadn't returned any of her owls in the past few weeks. He's just busy she told herself.

"So... what _were_ you doing last night?" Ginny asked again, smirking.

"Ginny…" Hermione sighed turning to look at her.

"Fine I'll drop it for now, but you are so not of the hook." Ginny said, turning back to her pancakes. Hermione sipped her pumpkin juice subconsciously, what had she been doing last night? Ah, reading, she had been reading in the library.

"Ooooh, hey Hermione, looks like you got yourself an admirer!" Ginny said giggling.

Hermione looked up and her eyes immediately made contact with none other than Draco Malfoy. Hermione flushed and quickly turned away, just then remembering exactly what had gone down last night. She quickly swiped her books and muttered a goodbye to Ginny and exited the Great hall.

**Draco**

She had been embarrassed. They had made eye contact for a heartbeat, just a single heartbeat. Then she had flushed and turned away, swiftly grabbing her bag and exiting the hall, refusing to look up. She had been embarrassed. She had never been embarrassed to simply make eye contact before, why was she now? Draco thought to himself, as he walked to his next class. He was so used to girls flinging themselves at him, but she was different, she wasn't the type for ditzy flirtations, and he liked that. Wait, he liked that. He smiled to himself, yeah he liked that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter** **3:**

**A/N: I wish I was J.K. Rowling but I am not, and I don't own any of the characters!**

**Draco **

Draco climbed the steps of the astronomy tower, deep in thought. He was startled back to his senses by a screech. It came from Professor Sinistra. Her high pitched voice, often compared to the cries of a peacock, was now blabbering on about how disappointed she was to have one of her eighth year students late. He took no notice in this, though it was directed to him. Instead he delved back into his thoughts.

"Mr. Malfoy?", he heard coming from what seemed to be right above him. The voice repeated itself. "Mr. Malfoy?" Looking up, Draco realized that he had drifted off to sleep. "Yes?" He replied, straightening his back.

"Mr. Malfoy, I believe you were asked to provide your thoughts on the approaching eclipse." She stated.

"Erm, well- I suppose it will make it dark, won't it?" The majority of the class had difficulty concealing their snickers. Draco rolled his eyes as the class broke out into laughter.

"Alright, class dismissed. Two feet of parchment on the properties of Saturn's rings by tomorrow." Draco groaned inwardly, gathering his books and exiting the astronomy tower with the rest of his classmates.

**Ron**

He didn't know what he was doing. Ron had been hiding behind that tree for an hour contemplating what he was going to say. Ron traveled to Hogwarts with Harry just for this moment with Hermione. He had planned it out for months. The second he saw Hermione sit down beneath the tree Ron knew he needed to take action, quick. Ron popped out behind the tree and tried to talk to her like a normal wizard would do. But when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, he knew that this wouldn't be a normal meeting. When her lips reached for his, Ron couldn't reach for hers, after what her was about to tell her. Ron pulled his neck away, kissing her on the cheek. He took her hand. He realized that there was a hamartia in his plan and inwardly cringed, he should've taken it off, Ron didn't want Hermione to notice his - "New watch?" She asked, he grimaced.

**Hermione**

Hermione was still in awe of her new found liking for Draco. She needed to get a breath of fresh air after a stressful day of studying for her transfiguration test. She found herself in the secret garden near the rear hall. She snuck through the garden until she found a shady spot underneath a large oak-like tree that produced the sweetest tasting fruit she had ever ate. There were two songbirds perched on the highest branches singing a joyful tune. She let herself melt into the curved and twisted trunk.

"Hey pumpkin juice. How's it going?'"a voice said from behind her, she jumped as Ron let out a snort of laughter. He looked good. He wore and nice pressed shirt, his hair gelled, and he smelled really good. She stood up and wrapped her arm around the redhead's neck, and stood on her tip-toes to plant a kiss on his mouth. Her lips were about to reach his, but suddenly he jerked his head in an odd way, planting the kiss on her cheek instead of her mouth. Confused, Hermione looked up at Ron but his face allowed no display to show that something was wrong. She hesitated before brushing it off.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, taking Rons hand.

"Well, Harry and I decided to pay a visit to our girls. Walk with me Hermione." He said grabbing her hand and swinging it to an unheard beat.

"New watch?" Hermione asked, noticing the new shiny gold watch on Ron's wrist.

"Yeah." He responded bluntly. She waited for him to elaborate but he didn't.

"Hermione, we need to talk." Ron stopped walking and faced her.

"Okay, about what?" She said as breezily as she could, she knew Ron, and she knew something was wrong.

"Hermione, I can't do this anymore. I never get to see you, and I don't know about you but I think that this is just too hard to have a relationship when I only see you every two months." He said running his hands through his hair, eyes cold. Hermione bit her lip.

"Ron," She started, her voice a low whisper, "are you breaking up with me?" A pained look crossed Rons face.

"Yes." She gasped, she hadn't seen this coming. They owled each other every day, the talked by floo powder at least once a week, and he often joined her in Hogsmeade, and they seemed perfect, so why… ? Then it hit her.

"Ron," Her voice a deadly whisper "How long?"

"What?" Ron said, his face confused.

"How long have you been seeing her?" Her voice rising slightly but maintaining its dangerous edge. Ron gulped, and hung his head.

"Six months. I've been seeing her for six months." He said, wringing his hands in shame.

"Who is she, what's her name?" Hermione asked, her voice wavering slightly. _Keep your cool Hermione, don't show weakness._

"Her name is Iris Heneslly, she's a-"

"I know who she is," Hermione's shoulders sagged. She could never compete with Iris. Iris Heneslly was an international super model, and she was beautiful; long blond hair, big blue eyes, plump lips, and perfect skin and body.

"Hermione, how, how did you know that I was, um seeing, um… yeah? I didn't tell anyone except for Harry… bloody hell, I am going to kill him!" Ron yelled throwing his head back, and running his hands through his gelled hair. Hermione shook her head.

"No Ron Harry-Harry didn't tell me. I-I just figured it out on my own." Hermione told the ginger. "The way you were dressed, the fact that you wouldn't kiss me, and you would never buy yourself a new watch, much less an expensive one, if your old watch still functioned fine, you're simply too lazy to care." Ron nodded, still looking slightly shocked that Hermione had figured out his secret.

"Hermione I'm so-" Rons speech was cut of by a sickening crunch as her fist met Rons nose.

"BLOODY HELL!" Ron yelled staggering backwards, blood streaming from his nose. _Ha, take that you two faced- _She felt the tears pooling up in her eyes. Hermione grabbed her books, not wanting to cry in front of Ron, and ran back up to the castle, leaving a swearing Ron behind. Only once she was out of Rons sight did she let her tears fall.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed the Ron POV! I love all you guys for reading my stuff! Thanks, and please review!**


End file.
